Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

78 The learning of Asaph. My people, perceive ye my law; bow your ear into the words of my mouth. (The teaching of Asaph. My people, listen ye to my teaching; bow down your ear to the words of my mouth.)

² I shall open my mouth in parables; I shall speak perfect reasons from the beginning (I shall speak perfect reasoning from the old days).

³ How great things have we heard, and we have known those; and our fathers told to us. (What great things we have heard, and we have known; and our fathers told us.)

⁴ Those be not hid from the sons of them; in another generation. And they told the praisings of the Lord, and the virtues of him; and his marvels, which he did. (We will not hide these things from their sons and daughters; yea, from the generations to come. We shall tell out the praises of the Lord, and his strength, or his power; and the marvellous deeds which he did.)

⁵² And he took away his people as sheep; and he led them forth as a flock in desert. (But he took away his own people from there, like sheep; yea, he led them forth like a flock in the wilderness.)

⁵³ And he led them forth in hope, and they dreaded not; and the sea covered the enemies of them. (And he led them forth in hope, and they were not afraid; and the sea covered their enemies.)

⁵⁴ And he brought them into the hill of his hallowing; into the hill which his right hand (had) gat. (And he brought them to his holy hill; to the Mount which his right hand, or his power, had won.)

⁵⁵ And he casted out heathen men from the face of them; and by lot he parted to them the land in a cord of dealing. And he made the lineages of Israel to dwell in the tabernacles of them. (And he threw out the heathen before them; and by lot he parted the land to them with a measuring cord. And he let the tribes of Israel to live in the tents, or the homes, of the heathen.)

⁵⁶ And they tempted, and wrathed the high God; and they kept not his witnessings. (And still they tempted, and angered, the Most High God; and they did not obey his teachings, or his commands.)

⁵⁷ And they turned away themselves, and they kept not covenant; as their fathers, (they) were turned into a shrewd bow. (And they turned themselves away/And they rebelled, and they did not obey the covenant; like their forefathers, they were bent like a crooked bow.)

⁵⁸ They stirred him into ire in their little hills; and they stirred him to indignation in their graven images. (They stirred him to anger with their high places, or their hill shrines; and they stirred him to indignation with their carved images, or their idols.)

⁵⁹ God heard, and forsook; and brought to nought Israel greatly. (God saw and heard all of this; and then he abandoned them, and he brought down Israel into nothing.)

⁶⁰ And he putted away the tabernacle of Shiloh; his tabernacle in which he dwelled among men. (And he deserted his Tabernacle at Shiloh; the Tent in which he lived among his people.)

⁶¹ And he betook the virtue of them into captivity; and the fairness of them into the hands of the enemy. (And he delivered the symbol of his strength, that is, the Ark of the Covenant, into captivity; yea, the symbol of his beauty, or of his glory, into the hands of the enemy.)

⁶² And he closed together his people in sword; and he despised his heritage. (And he altogether ended his people by the sword; and he despised his inheritance.)

⁶³ Fire ate the young men of them; and the virgins of them were not bewailed/were not bewept. (The fire ate up their young men; and their virgins did not bewail them/and their virgins did not weep for them.)

⁶⁴ The priests of them fell down by sword; and the widows of them were not bewept. (Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows did not weep for them.)

⁶⁵ And the Lord was raised, as sleeping; as mighty greatly filled of wine. (Then the Lord was raised up; like one who had been sleeping, like a mighty man excited by wine.)

⁶⁶ And he smote his enemies on the hinder parts; he gave to them everlasting shame. (And he struck his enemies on their back-sides; yea, he gave them up to everlasting shame.)

⁶⁷ And he putted away the tabernacle of Joseph; and he chose not the lineage of Ephraim. (And he rejected the house of Joseph; and he chose not the tribe of Ephraim.)

⁶⁸ But he chose the lineage of Judah; he chose the hill of Zion, which he loved. (But he chose the tribe of Judah; and he chose Mount Zion, which he loved.)

⁶⁹ And he as an unicorn builded his holy place; in the land, which he founded into worlds. (And he built his holy place like his home in heaven/And he built his holy place as high as the heavens; and he founded it like the earth, to last forever.)

⁷⁰ And he chose David his servant, and took him up from the flocks of sheep; (And he chose David to be his servant, and took him away from the flocks of sheep;)

⁷¹ he took him from behind sheep with lambs. To feed Jacob his servant; and Israel his heritage. (yea, he brought him out from following behind the sheep with their lambs, to feed his people Jacob; yea, his inheritance Israel.)

⁷² And he fed them in the innocence of his heart; and he led them forth in the understandings of his hands. (And David fed them from the innocence of his heart; and he led them forth by the skillfulness of his hands.)

¹³ Therefore eventide was made, and curlews went up, and covered the castles; and in the morrowtide dew came before the face of the castles. (And so the evening came, and curlews flew in, and covered the tents; and in the morning dew lay all around the tents.)

¹⁴ And when it had covered the earth, a little thing, and as pounded with a pestle, in the likeness of an hoarfrost on the earth, appeared in the wilderness. (And when it had covered all the ground, there appeared in the wilderness a little thing, as if it was pounded with a pestle, and like hoarfrost on the ground.)

¹⁵ And when the sons of Israel had seen that, they said together, Man na? which signifieth, What is this? for they wist not what it was (And when the Israelites had seen it, they said to each other, Manna? which meaneth, What is this? for they did not know what it was). To whom Moses said, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.

¹⁶ This is the word which the Lord commanded, Each man gather thereof as much as it sufficeth to be eaten, omer by each head, by the number of your souls that dwell in the tabernacle, so ye shall take. (This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Each of you gather as much of it as sufficeth to be eaten, yea, an omer for each soul, such ye shall gather by the number of souls who live in your tent.)

¹⁷ And the sons of Israel did so, and they gathered (it), one more, and another less;

¹⁸ and they meted [it] at the measure of omer; neither he that gathered more had more, neither he that made ready less found less, but all gathered by that that they might eat. (and they measured it at the measure of an omer per person, and he who gathered more did not have too much, nor he who gathered less had not enough, but they all gathered just what they could eat.)

¹⁹ And Moses said to them, No man leave thereof into the morrowtide; (And Moses said to them, No one leave any of it until the next morning;)

²⁰ which heard not him, but some of them left thereof till to the morrowtide, and it began to boil with worms, and it was rotten; and Moses was wroth against them. (but some of them did not listen to him, and saved some of it for the next day, and it began to boil with worms, and it was rotten; and Moses was angry at them.)

²¹ Forsooth all they gathered in the morrowtide as much as sufficed to be eaten; and when the sun was hot, it was molten. (So every morning they all gathered as much as sufficed to be eaten; and when the sun was risen, it melted away.)

²² Soothly in the sixth day they gathered double meats, that is, two omers each man (And on the sixth day they gathered double the amount, that is, two omers for each person). Forsooth all the princes of the multitude came, and told (that) to Moses,

²³ which said to them, This it is that the Lord spake, The rest of the sabbath is hallowed to the Lord; do ye whatever thing (that) shall be wrought tomorrow, and seethe ye those things that shall be sodden; soothly whatever thing is residue, or left over, keep ye it till into the morrow. (and he said to them, This is what the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the sabbath, that is holy, or is dedicated, to the Lord; so do ye today whatever needeth to be done, and boil ye those things that need to be boiled; and whatever is left over, keep ye it for tomorrow.)

²⁴ And they did so as Moses commanded (And so they did as Moses commanded), and it was not rotten, neither a worm was found therein.

²⁵ And Moses said, Eat ye that in this day, for it is the sabbath of the Lord, it shall not be found today in the field; (And Moses said, Eat ye it today, for this is the sabbath of the Lord, and no food shall be found in the field today;)

²⁶ gather ye it in six days, forsooth the sabbath of the Lord is in the seventh day, therefore in that day it shall not be found. (gather ye it for six days, but the sabbath of the Lord is on the seventh day, and so on that day it shall not be found.)

¹⁹ Then sayest thou to me, What is sought yet [What thing is yet sought]? for who withstandeth his will?

²⁰ O! man, who art thou, that answerest to God? Whether a made thing saith to him that made it, What hast thou made me so?

²¹ Whether a potter of clay hath not power to make of the same gobbet one vessel into honour, another into despite? [Whether a potter of clay hath not power of the same gobbet to make soothly one vessel into honour, another forsooth into despite, or low office?]

²² And if God willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, hath suffered in great patience vessels of wrath able into death, [That if God willing to show wrath, and to make his power known, sustained in great patience the vessels of wrath able into perdition, or damnation,]

²³ to show the riches of his glory [that he should show the riches of his glory] into vessels of mercy, which he made ready into glory.

²⁴ Which also he called [us,] not only of the Jews, but also of heathen men,

²⁵ as he saith in Osee, I shall call not my people my people, and not my loved my loved, and not getting mercy getting mercy [and not having mercy having mercy];

²⁶ and it shall be in the place, where it is said to them, Not ye my people, there they shall be called the sons of living God.

²⁷ But Esaias crieth for Israel [Forsooth Esaias crieth for Israel], If the number of children of Israel shall be as [the] gravel of the sea, the remnants [the reliefs] shall be made safe.

²⁸ Forsooth a word making an end, and abridging in equity, for the Lord shall make a word abridged on all the earth^[a].

²⁹ And as Esaias before-said, But God of hosts had left to us seed, we had been made as Sodom, and we had been like as Gomorrha.